Will the UMA join the UPM

- The Maghreb countries have "stated to review" their participation in the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), after the Israeli offensive in Ghaza, announced Wednesday in Tripoli, a spokesman for the presidency of the Union of the Arabe Maghreb (UMA).

•     "The UMA countries have begun to review their membership in the Union for the Mediterranean, as Israelis and Palestinians are members, especially after what happened in Ghaza," said the spokesman mentioned but not identified by the official Libyan Agency Jana.
  
      Libya, which holds the presidency of the UMA (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) had declared at the outset against the Union launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying it would undermine Arab and African unity.
  
      Since December 27 date of the launch of the deadly Israeli offensive in Ghaza, the official Libyan news making a virulent campaign, almost daily, against the UPM, believing that war in Ghazi was the "result" of this union.
  
      They denounced the particular position of the European members of the UPM in their supporting the Jewish State.
  
      A fervent opponent of UPM, the Libyan leader Muammar Kaddafi had estimated that the promised economic projects to countries of the south of the Mediterranean was only a "bait" and represents "a humiliation" to these countries.
  
      ‘We are neither hungry nor dogs to throw us bones’, he said in particular at a mini Arab summit in June in Tripoli.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.